This experiment employs three distinct models for generating floor plans: a set of shapes, graph and polygons. From a viewpoint of architecture, three models fall into two categories: the model for the solids(the wall) and the model for the rooms. The set of shapes are employed to represent the solids; the graph and the polygons are used to represent the rooms.

The set of shapes include simple shapes like “T” shapes, “+” shapes, circles, quadrangles and so on. A set of these shapes constitutes a wall system that make partitions of spaces.

The graph is employed to represent the topology of the rooms. The method is very similar to Hillier’s (1986) formulation. Every node denotes a room, a link between two rooms means that two rooms have to be next to each other and be accessible from each other. The topological information of the rooms are inputs of the program.

The polygon is the model to represent each room. The main concerns in this model is how good(or bad) is a polygon as a room? First of all, the area of the polygon is obviously an important criteria. Beside, the rectangle as the “standard” shape of the room is employed to measure how good(or bad) is the shape of the polygon. The larger the overlap area between the rectangle and the polygon, the better the polygon is.

The process to generate the floor plans with the three models include the following steps:

1. make a composition with the predefined shapes, detect all closed regions as potential rooms.

2. Find a set of regions that satisfies the predefined topology of rooms by graph matching algorithm.

3. Change all the shapes gradually to improve the areas of the selected regions. The topology between these regions are kept still.

4. Change all the shapes gradually to improve the shape of every selected region. The topology between these regions are kept still.

Programmed in Java

September 2011

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